Alwaght- Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef begged France to grant him the prestigious award of Legion d'Honneur, it has been revealed.
The French magazine Causette has published a series of email exchanges between French officials showing they accepted a request by the Saudi prince to award him the prestigious award.
According to one of the emails published by the magazine, Prince Mohammed requested the award "at a time in which he seeks to boost his international stature".
"I know some are raising questions about honoring the prince... certainly the kingdom does not have a good reputation," reads the email attributed to France's ambassador to Saudi Arabia, addressed to advisors in the presidency and foreign ministry.
French President Francois Hollande granted secretly last Wednesday the Legion of Honor (Legion d'Honneur), the highest decoration in France, to bin Nayef, during the latter's visit to Paris. No official announcement was made until the issue leaked to the media two days later, which raised a wave of protests amid the political class and rights organizations across France.
France has close ties with the Saudi regime and, has sold billions of Euros worth of weapons to the Kingdom which is currently engaged in a brutal aggression against Yemen killing over 8500 people over the last one year. Syria also blames the Saudi regime for providing weapons and cash to terrorist groups such as ISIS fighting to topple the legitimate Syrian government.
